Archive for August, 2008

How ironic that Helen Clark chose in 2005 to create a governing bloc with Winston Peters for reasons of stability, to ensure that her government would run its full course. Serves her right, really.
“Winston Peters” and “stability” are words that you put in the same ...

So the Greens’ long, slow striptease over the Emissions Trading Scheme has now come to an end, with the party being granted a G-string of government concessions and commitments, in return for its support. The concessions are good in themselves. The difficulty will be in persuading the public that this ...

Like the gong starting round one, Newstalk ZB’s Barry Soper got in the first shot – what’s the election date ? – but no one at Prime Minister Helen Clark’s first press conference in weeks expected a substantive reply, and we didn’t get one. No news about that today. ...

Gordon Campbell on National’s plans for roads, schools and hospitals + Bloggers + Biden
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Interesting that the National Party is seriously regarding the Australian experience with public private partnerships (PPPs) as providing a precedent for using PPPs to fund schools and hospitals in this ...

Like most peeks behind the diplomatic curtain, the gaffe about the Australian briefing paper on Helen Clark was amusing, but instructive. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. If any country has been happily locked into ‘Vietnam era’ foreign policy perceptions, it has been Australia. ...

Images Kevin List
On the night, it seemed like game, set and match to Winston Peters in his initial skirmish with Parliament’s privileges committee. If this was heat being applied in the political kitchen, Peters barely raised a sweat. Ostensibly, this committee of eleven senior MPs from right across ...

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While the release on bail of the Iranian Christian convert Thomas Yadegary is a victory in the short term – and a substantial relief for Yadegary himself – it may be the last gasp of judicial common sense before the Immigration Bill – as the Green MP Keith ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell On The Yadegary Decision

Gordon Campbell On Arts Funding PolicyClick to enlarge
Some people, including quite a few artists, find the very notion of state funding of the arts a hard one to embrace. For one thing, there’s a certain lack of romance involved An artist starving in a garret is a more ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell On Arts Funding Policy

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Will John Key’s policy announcement on welfare this afternoon do much to resolve the problems it claims to address ? Hardly. The measures seem entirely punitive if - as mooted - they do entail a part time work requirement of 15 hours a ...

Pretty doggedly, the mainstream media have stuck to their guns and kept the storyline on the secret tapes fiasco firmly focused where the National Party would prefer it to be – on Who Taped It, rather than (a) what is on the tapes or (b) what such content might ...